Illicit Drug use in the Asia Pacific Region - Burnet Institute

Situational analysis of illicit drug issues and responses in the Asia–Pacific region
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Appendix A:
Country profiles
A1 . Brunei Darussalam
Geography Located in Southeastern Asia, bordering the South China
Sea . Land border with Malaysia only . Flat coastal plain
rises to mountains in east; hilly lowland in west .
Arable land: 0 .57%
Permanent crops: 0 .76%
Other: 98 .67% (2001)
Government Constitutional Sultanate
Chief of state: Sultan and Prime Minister Sir Hassanal
Bolkiah (since 5 October 1967); the monarch is both
the chief of state and head of government .
Head of government: Sultan and Prime Minister
Sir Hassanal Bolkiah (since 5 October 1967)
Elections: none; hereditary monarchy
Population 365,251 (July 2004 est .)
Urban: 75 .5% (2002)
Median age: 26 .7
Age structure:
0–14 years: 29 .1%
15–64 years: 68%
65 years and over: 2 .9% (2004 est .)
Human development index HDI Rank 33 (177 countries)
Unemployment rate 10% (2001 est .)
Language Malay (official), English, Chinese
Literacy % Age 15 and over can read and write:
Total population: 93 .9%
Male: 96 .3%
Female: 91 .4% (2002)
Religion Muslim (official) 67%, Buddhist 13%, Christian 10%,
indigenous beliefs and other 10%
Health Life expectancy: 74 .54 years
Male: 72 .13 years
Female: 77 .09 years (2004 est .)
Economics GDP: purchasing power parity — $6 .5 billion (2002 est .)
Population living below poverty line: N/A
A1 .1 Narrative summary
of drug vulnerabilities
Brunei Darussalam is a small, wealthy country
with a per capita GDP well above most other
developing nations . It is increasingly urbanised
and in 2002 30 per cent of the population were
aged less than 15 years . Despite its wealth, in
2001 (latest available figures) Brunei had a
substantial unemployment rate of 10 per cent
(United Nations Development Programme,
2004; World Health Organization, 2004d) .
Brunei borders only with Malaysia, which
has a large number of drug users consuming
heroin, ATS and cannabis . Unemployment
and Brunei’s geographical proximity to drug
trafficking routes from the Golden Triangle
create the potential prospect of a domestic
drug use problem (United States Department
of State, Bureau for International Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs, 2004b) .
Historical and cultural interactions
with drugs
No information accessible .
A1 .2 Prevalence of drug
use and profile of drug users
There are no estimates, official or unofficial,
of the number of drug users in Brunei; there
have been no surveys of drug use among the
general population or the student/youth population
. A report that there was no injecting
drug use in 2003 (United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, 2004a) contrasts with HIV/
AIDS notification figures, listing 3 .8 per cent
of diagnosed HIV infections as being linked
to the sharing of needles (United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003) . There is
one suggestion, on unknown assumptions, of
an estimated 3000–4000 injecting drug users
(Aceijas et al ., 2004b) . The credibility of such
a figure is likely to be disputed .
Police arrest data show a rapid increase in
the number of young people using methamphetamine,
mostly in urban areas and in
labour-intensive industries (United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003) . From
prison treatment data, most of the methamphetamine
users were male (94%) and aged
between 28 and 32 years (United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, 2004a); demand
for drugs is suggested to be mainly among
unemployed men of Malay ethnicity (United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003) .
Data collection systems in place
Data are routinely collected from arrests
and from treatment admissions; these data
are publicly available from 1996 . Information
is shared between various national
law enforcement agencies: the Royal Brunei
Darussalam Police Force, the Royal Customs
and Excise Department, the Immigration
and National Registration Department, the
Brunei Darussalam Research Department and
the Internal Security Department . Meetings
to share information occur when necessary,
attempting to ‘foster better coordination
between the various law enforcement
agencies’ (United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, 2004a) .
A1 .3 Drug supply, production,
availability, cost and trade
No cultivation or production of any form
of narcotics has been reported from Brunei
as of 2003 (United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime, 2003) . Despite the dense jungles
and rivers along the borders and coastline of
Brunei — ideal for drug trafficking, the size of
the country allows government authorities to
closely monitor its territory (United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime, 2003; United
States Department of State, Bureau for International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement
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Country profiles: Brunei Darussalam